Editing Harold Wilson (section)

=== Social policies ===
====Workers====
{{Main|Labour government, 1964–1970#Workers}}
The [[Industrial Training Act 1964]] set up an Industrial Training Board to encourage training for people in work,<ref name="Longman"/> and within seven years there were "27 ITBs covering employers with some 15 million workers."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDbRCaCPD7wC&q=labour+government+council+for+academic+awards+1964&pg=PA251|title=Teaching and Training in Post-compulsory Education|isbn=9780335222674|last1=Bryant|first1=Robin|last2=Dunnill|first2=Richard|last3=Flanagan|first3=Karen|last4=Hayes|first4=Dennis|date=1 December 2007|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education |access-date=1 November 2020|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417194149/https://books.google.com/books?id=sDbRCaCPD7wC&q=labour+government+council+for+academic+awards+1964&pg=PA251|url-status=live}}</ref> From 1964 to 1968, the number of training places had doubled.<ref name="Labour 1968"/> The Docks and Harbours Act (1966) and the Dock Labour Scheme (1967) reorganised the system of employment in the docks in order to put an end to [[casual employment]].<ref name="shorthistory"/> The changes made to the Dock Labour Scheme in 1967 ensured a complete end to casual labour on the docks, effectively giving workers the security of jobs for life.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thespiritof45.com/How-We-Did-it |title=Ken Loach's film The Spirit Of '45 – How We Did it |publisher=Thespiritof45.com |access-date=10 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105051327/http://www.thespiritof45.com/how-we-did-it |archive-date=5 November 2013 }}</ref> Trade unions also benefited from the passage of the [[Trade Disputes Act 1965]]. This restored the legal immunity of trade union officials, thus ensuring that they could no longer be sued for threatening to strike.<ref name="taylor">''Mastering Economic and Social History'' by David Taylor.</ref>

The First Wilson Government also encouraged married women to return to teaching and improved Assistance Board Concessionary conditions for those teaching part-time, "by enabling them to qualify for pension rights and by formulating a uniform scale of payment throughout the country." Soon after coming into office, midwives and nurses were given an 11% pay increase,<ref name="Labour 1968"/> and according to one MP, nurses also benefited from the largest pay rise they had received in a generation.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1969/oct/31/pensions-and-education#S5CV0790P0_19691031_HOC_46 PENSIONS AND EDUCATION (Hansard, 31 October 1969.)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312115253/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1969/oct/31/pensions-and-education#S5CV0790P0_19691031_HOC_46 |date=12 March 2016 }} vol 790 cc509-608 – api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 13 February 2012.</ref> In May 1966, Wilson announced 30% pay rises for doctors and dentists—a move which did not prove popular with unions, as the national pay policy at the time was for rises of between 3% and 3.5%.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2502000/2502925.stm |title=1966: Doctors and dentists get huge pay rise |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008100355/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/4/newsid_2502000/2502925.stm |archive-date=8 October 2017 |work=BBC Home: On this day – 1950–2005 |date=4 May 1966 |access-date=14 January 2012}}</ref>

Much needed improvements were made in junior hospital doctors' salaries. From 1959 to 1970, while the earnings of manual workers increased by 75%, the salaries of registrars more than doubled while those of house officers more than trebled. Most of these improvements, such as for nurses, came in the pay settlements of 1970. On a limited scale, reports by the [[National Board for Prices and Incomes]] encouraged incentive payments schemes to be developed in local government and elsewhere. In February 1969, the government accepted an "above the ceiling" increase for farmworkers, a low-paid group. Some groups of professional workers, such as nurses, teachers, and doctors, gained substantial awards.<ref name="inequality"/>

====Transport====
The Travel Concessions Act 1964, one of the first Acts passed by the First Wilson Government, provided concessions to all pensioners travelling on buses operated by municipal transport authorities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/10th-november-1967/98/two-pronged-fare-concessions-bid|title=Two-pronged fare-concessions bid|work=commercialmotor.com|access-date=15 January 2019|archive-date=10 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910102145/http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/10th-november-1967/98/two-pronged-fare-concessions-bid|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Transport Act 1968]] established the principle of government grants for transport authorities if uneconomic passenger services were justified on social grounds. A [[National Freight Corporation]] was also established to provide integrated rail freight and road services. Public expenditure on roads steadily increased and stricter safety precautions were introduced, such as the [[breathalyser]] test for [[drunken driving]],<ref name="ReferenceB"/> under the 1967 Road Traffic Act.<ref name="ReferenceN"/> The Transport Act gave a much needed financial boost to [[British Rail]], treating them like they were a company which had become bankrupt but could now, under new management, carry on debt-free. The act also established a national freight corporation and introduced government [[rail subsidies]] for passenger transport on the same basis as existing subsidies for roads to enable local authorities to improve public transport in their areas.<ref name="ReferenceN"/>

The road-building programme was also expanded, with capital expenditure increased to 8% of GDP, "the highest level achieved by any post-war government".<ref name="labour1">''Ten Years of New Labour'', edited by Matt Beech and Simon Lee.</ref> Central government expenditure on roads went up from £125 million in 1963/64 to £225 million in 1967/68, while a number of [[road safety]] regulations were introduced, covering [[seat belt]]s, lorry drivers' hours, car and lorry standards, and an experimental 70 mile per hour speed limit. In Scotland, spending on [[trunk road]]s went up from £6.8 million in 1963/64 to £15.5 million in 1966/67, while in Wales, spending on Welsh roads went up from £21.2 million in 1963/64 to £31.4 million in 1966/67.<ref name="Labour 1968"/>

====Regional development====
Encouragement of regional development was given increased attention under the First Wilson Government, to narrow economic disparities between the various regions. A policy was introduced in 1965 whereby any new government organisation should be established outside London and in 1967 the government decided to give preference to development areas. A few government departments were also moved out of London, with the [[Royal Mint]] moved to [[South Wales]], the Giro and Inland Revenue to [[Bootle]], and the Motor Tax Office to [[Swansea]].<ref name="beckerman">''The Labour government's Economic record: 1964–1970'', edited by Wilfred Beckerman.</ref> A new Special Development Status was also introduced in 1967 to provide even higher levels of assistance.<ref name="ponting"/> In 1966, five development areas (covering half the population in the UK) were established, while subsidies were provided for employers recruiting new employees in the Development Areas.<ref name="Thorpe64702001"/> A Highlands and Islands Development Board was also set up to "re-invigorate" the north of Scotland.<ref name="Labour 1968"/>

The Industrial Development Act 1966 changed the name of Development Districts (parts of the country with higher levels of [[Unemployment in the United Kingdom|unemployment]] than the national average and which governments sought to encourage greater investment in) to Development Areas and increased the percentage of the workforce covered by development schemes from 15% to 20%, which mainly affected rural areas in Scotland and Wales. Tax allowances were replaced by grants to extend coverage to include firms which were not making a profit, and in 1967 a Regional Employment Premium was introduced. Whereas the existing schemes tended to favour capital-intensive projects, this aimed for the first time at increasing employment in depressed areas. Set at 30s per employee per week and guaranteed for seven years, the Regional Employment Premium subsidised all [[Manufacturing in the United Kingdom|manufacturing industry]] (though not services) in Development Areas, amounting to an average subsidy of 7% of labour costs.<ref name="ponting"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Tomlinson |first=Jim |title=The Labour Governments 1964–1970, Volume 3, Economic Policy |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester |year=2004 |page=86}}</ref>

Regional unemployment differentials were narrowed, and spending on regional infrastructure was significantly increased. Between 1965–66 and 1969–70, yearly expenditure on new construction (including power stations, roads, schools, hospitals and housing) rose by 41% in the United Kingdom as a whole. Subsidies were also provided for various industries (such as [[shipbuilding]] in [[Clydeside]]), which helped to prevent many job losses. It is estimated that, between 1964 and 1970, 45,000 government jobs were created outside London, 21,000 of which were located in the Development Areas.<ref name="beckerman"/> The Local Employment Act, passed in March 1970, embodied the government's proposals for assistance to 54 "intermediate" employment exchange areas not classified as full "development" areas.<ref name="Britannica1971">''Britannica Book of the Year 1971'', Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., William Benton (Publisher).</ref>

Funds allocated to regional assistance more than doubled, from £40&nbsp;million in 1964/65 to £82&nbsp;million in 1969/70, and from 1964 to 1970, the number of factories completed was 50% higher than from 1960 to 1964, which helped to reduce unemployment in development areas. In 1970, the unemployment rate in development areas was 1.67 times the national average, compared to 2.21 times in 1964. Although national rates of unemployment were higher in 1970 than in the early 1960s, unemployment rates in the development areas were lower and had not increased for three years.<ref name="ponting"/> Altogether, the impact of the first Wilson government's regional development policies was such that, according to one historian, the period 1963 to 1970 represented "the most prolonged, most intensive, and most successful attack ever launched on regional problems in Britain."<ref name="Thorpe64702001"/>

====International development====
A new [[Ministry of Overseas Development]] was established, with its greatest success at the time being the introduction of interest-free loans for the poorest countries.<ref name="ponting"/> The Minister of Overseas Development, [[Barbara Castle]], set a standard in interest relief on loans to developing nations which resulted in changes to the loan policies of many donor countries, "a significant shift in the conduct of rich white nations to poor brown ones". Loans were introduced to [[developing countries]] on terms that were more favourable to them than those given by governments of all other developed countries at that time. In addition, Castle was instrumental in setting up an Institute of Development Studies at the [[University of Sussex]] to devise ways of tackling global [[Socioeconomic inequality|socio-economic inequalities]]. Overseas aid suffered from the austerity measures introduced by the first Wilson government in its last few years in office, with British aid as a percentage of GNP falling from 0.53% in 1964 to 0.39% in 1969.<ref name="ReferenceN"/>

====Taxation====
Wilson's government made a variety of changes to the [[Taxation in the United Kingdom|tax system]]. Largely under the influence of the Hungarian-born economists [[Nicholas Kaldor]] and [[Thomas Balogh]], an idiosyncratic [[Selective Employment Tax]] (SET) was introduced that was designed to tax employment in the service sectors while subsidising employment in manufacturing. (The rationale proposed by its economist authors derived largely from claims about potential economies of scale and technological progress, but Wilson in his memoirs stressed the tax's revenue-raising potential.) The SET did not long survive the return of a Conservative government. Of longer-term significance, [[Capital gains tax in the United Kingdom|capital gains tax]] (CGT) was introduced across the UK on 6 April 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warr.co.uk/Changes-To-Capital-Gains-Tax.htm |title=Warr & Co Chartered Accountants – Article – Changes To Capital Gains Tax |publisher=Warr.co.uk |access-date=20 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531082945/http://www.warr.co.uk/Changes-To-Capital-Gains-Tax.htm |archive-date=31 May 2009}}</ref> Across his two periods in office, Wilson presided over significant increases in the overall tax burden in the UK. In 1974, three weeks after forming a new government, Wilson's new chancellor [[Denis Healey]] partially reversed the 1971 reduction in the top rate of tax from 90% to 75%, increasing it to 83% in his first budget, which came into law in April 1974. This applied to incomes over £20,000 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|20000|1974|{{Inflation-year|UK}}|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} and combined with a 15% surcharge on 'unearned' income (investments and dividends) could add up to a 98% marginal rate of personal income tax. In 1974, as many as 750,000 people were liable to pay the top rate of income tax.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn25.pdf |title=IFS: Long-Term trends in British Taxation and Spending |access-date=6 August 2014 |archive-date=2 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202090902/http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn25.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

Various changes were also made to the tax system which benefited workers on low and middle incomes. Married couples with low incomes benefited from the increases in the single personal allowance and marriage allowance. In 1965, the regressive allowance for national insurance contributions was abolished and the single personal allowance, marriage allowance and wife's earned income relief were increased. These allowances were further increased in the tax years 1969–70 and 1970–71. Increases in the age exemption and dependant relative's income limits benefited the low-income elderly.<ref name="inequality"/> In 1967, new tax concessions were introduced for widows.<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book |last1=Thane |first1=Pat |last2=Evans |first2=Tanya |title=Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZvhMJWK930C&q=harold+wilson+widows+tax+concessions+1967&pg=PA129 |url-status=live |date=May 2012 |publisher=OUP Oxford |access-date=1 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417194151/https://books.google.com/books?id=HZvhMJWK930C&q=harold+wilson+widows+tax+concessions+1967&pg=PA129 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |isbn=9780199578504}}</ref>

Increases were made in some of the minor allowances in the 1969 Finance Act, notably the additional personal allowance, the age exemption and age relief and the dependent relative limit. Apart from the age relief, further adjustments in these concessions were implemented in 1970.<ref name="inequality"/>

1968 saw the introduction of aggregation of the investment income of unmarried minors with the income of their parents. According to Michael Meacher, this change put an end to a previous inequity whereby two families, in otherwise identical circumstances, paid differing amounts of tax "simply because in one case the child possessed property transferred to it by a grandparent, while in the other case the grandparent's identical property was inherited by the parent."<ref name="inequality"/>

In the 1969 budget, income tax was abolished for about 1 million of the lowest-paid and reduced for a further 600,000 people,<ref name="Crossman"/> while in the government's last budget (introduced in 1970), two million small taxpayers were exempted from paying any income tax altogether.<ref>"Le contrat dans les pays anglo-saxons: théories et pratiques" by Jean-Louis Breteau.</ref>

====Liberal reforms====
{{main|Labour government, 1964–1970#Liberal reforms}}
A wide range of liberal measures were introduced during Wilson's time in office. The [[Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970]] made provision for the welfare of children whose parents were about to divorce or be judicially separated, with courts (for instance) granted wide powers to order financial provision for children in the form of maintenance payments made by either parent.<ref name="byrne1"/> This legislation allowed courts to order provision for either spouse and recognised the contribution to the joint home made during marriage.<ref name="Longman"/> That same year, spouses were given an equal share of household assets following divorce via the Matrimonial Property Act. The [[Race Relations Act 1968]] was also extended in 1968 and in 1970 the [[Equal Pay Act 1970]] was passed.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Another important reform, the [[Welsh Language Act 1967]], granted 'equal validity' to the declining [[Welsh language]] and encouraged its revival. Government expenditure was also increased on both sport and the arts.<ref name="shorthistory"/> The Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, passed in response to the [[Aberfan disaster]], made provision for preventing disused tips from endangering members of the public.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsUK/planning/legislation/minewaste.html |title=Legislation & policy: mineral ownership &#124; Planning &#124; MineralsUK |publisher=Bgs.ac.uk |access-date=10 April 2014 |archive-date=3 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103200113/http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/planning/legislation/mineWaste.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1967, [[corporal punishment]] in [[borstal]]s and [[Her Majesty's Prison Service|prisons]] was abolished.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVH0fVcMx5cC&q=UK+corporal+punishment+1948&pg=PP149 |title=Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom 1951–1970 – Brian Harrison – Google Books |date=26 March 2009 |access-date=6 August 2014 |isbn=9780191606786 |last1=Harrison |first1=Brian |publisher=OUP Oxford |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417194149/https://books.google.com/books?id=oVH0fVcMx5cC&q=UK+corporal+punishment+1948&pg=PP149 |url-status=live }}</ref> seven regional associations were established to develop the arts, and government expenditure on cultural activities rose from £7.7 million in 1964/64 to £15.3 million in 1968/69. A Criminal Injuries Compensation Board was also set up, which had paid out over £2 million to victims of criminal violence by 1968.<ref name="Labour 1968"/>

The [[Commons Registration Act 1965]] provided for the registration of all [[common land]] and [[village green]]s, whilst under the [[Countryside Act 1968]], local authorities could provide facilities "for enjoyment of such lands to which the public has access".<ref name="byrne1"/> The Family Provision Act 1966 amended a series of pre-existing [[Property law|estate laws]] mainly related to persons who died intestate. The legislation increased the amount that could be paid to surviving spouses if a will had not been left, and also expanded upon the jurisdiction of [[county court]]s, which were given the jurisdiction of high courts under certain circumstances when handling matters of estate. The rights of adopted children were also improved with certain wording changed in the Inheritance (Family Provision) Act 1938 to bestow upon them the same rights as natural-born children. In 1968, the [[Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act 1948]] was updated to include more categories of childminders.<ref>''Family day care: international perspectives on policy, practice and quality'' by Ann Mooney and June Statham.</ref> A year later, the [[Family Law Reform Act 1969]] was passed, which allowed people born outside marriage to inherit on the [[intestacy]] of either parent.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/overview/legitimacyadoption/ |title=Marriage: legitimacy and adoption – UK Parliament |publisher=Parliament.uk |access-date=26 September 2011 |archive-date=26 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226112421/http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/overview/legitimacyadoption/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1967, [[Homosexuality in England|homosexuality]] was partially decriminalised (in England & Wales only) by the passage of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|Sexual Offences Act]].<ref name="ReferenceN"/> The [[Public Records Act 1967]] also introduced a [[thirty-year rule]] for access to public records, replacing a previous fifty-year rule.<ref name="SeldonHickson">''New Labour, Old Labour: The Wilson and Callaghan Governments, 1974–79'' edited by Anthony Seldon and Kevin Hickson.</ref>

====Industrial relations====
Wilson made periodic attempts to mitigate inflation, largely through [[Wage control|wage]]-[[price controls]]—better known in Britain as "prices and [[incomes policy]]".<ref name="Thorpe64702001"/> (As with indicative planning, such controls—though now generally out of favour—were widely adopted at that time by governments of different ideological complexions, including the [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon administration]] in the United States.) Partly as a result of this reliance, the government tended to find itself repeatedly injected into major industrial disputes, with late-night "beer and sandwiches at Number Ten" an almost routine culmination to such episodes. Among the most damaging of the numerous strikes during Wilson's periods in office was a six-week stoppage by the [[National Union of Seamen]], beginning shortly after Wilson's [[1966 United Kingdom general election|re-election in 1966]], and conducted, he claimed, by "politically motivated men".

With public frustration over strikes mounting, Wilson's government in 1969 proposed a series of changes to the legal basis for industrial relations (labour law), which were outlined in a White Paper "[[In Place of Strife]]" put forward by the Employment Secretary [[Barbara Castle]]. Following a confrontation with the [[Trades Union Congress]], which strongly opposed the proposals, and internal dissent from [[Home Secretary]] [[James Callaghan]], the government substantially backed-down from its intentions. The Heath government (1970–1974) introduced the [[Industrial Relations Act 1971]] with many of the same ideas, but this was largely repealed by the post-1974 Labour government. Some elements of these changes were subsequently to be enacted (in modified form) during the premiership of [[Margaret Thatcher]].<ref name="Thorpe64702001"/>

====Record on income distribution====
Despite the economic difficulties faced by the first Wilson government, it succeeded in maintaining low levels of unemployment and inflation during its time in office. Unemployment was kept below 2.7%, and inflation for much of the 1960s remained below 4%. Living standards generally improved, while public spending on housing, social security, transport, research, education and health went up by an average of more than 6% between 1964 and 1970.<ref name="white heat">''White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties'', Dominic Sandbrook.</ref> The average household grew steadily richer, with the number of cars in the United Kingdom rising from one to every 6.4 persons to one for every five persons in 1968, representing a net increase of three million cars on the road. The rise in the standard of living was also characterised by increased ownership of various consumer durables from 1964 to 1969, as demonstrated by television sets (from 88% to 90%), refrigerators (from 39% to 59%), and washing machines (from 54% to 64%).<ref name="ReferenceN"/>

By 1970, income in Britain was more equally distributed than in 1964, mainly because of increases in cash benefits, including family allowances.<ref>''The Struggle for Labour's Soul: Understanding Labour's political thought since 1945'' by Raymond Plant, Matt Beech and Kevin Hickson.</ref>

According to the historian, [[Dominic Sandbrook]]:

{{blockquote|In its commitment to social services and public welfare, the Wilson government put together a record unmatched by any subsequent administration, and the mid-sixties are justifiably seen as the 'golden age' of the welfare state.<ref name="white heat"/>}}

As noted by [[Ben Pimlott]], the gap between those on lowest incomes and the rest of the population "had been significantly reduced" under Wilson's first government.<ref>''Harold Wilson'' by Ben Pimlott.</ref> The first Wilson government thus saw the distribution of income became more equal,<ref name="socialists1"/> while big reductions in poverty took place.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20240714195554/https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/improving-our-understanding-of-uk-poverty-will-require-better-data/ Improving our understanding of UK poverty will require better data by Adam Corlett, 6 January 2021]</ref><ref>''Poverty in Britain, 1900–1965'' by Ian Gazeley.</ref> These achievements were mainly brought about by several increases in social welfare benefits,<ref>''Understanding Social Policy'' by Michael James Hill.</ref> such as supplementary benefit, pensions and family allowances, the latter of which were doubled between 1964 and 1970 (although most of the increase in family allowances did not come about until 1968). A new system of rate rebates was introduced, which benefited one million households by the end of the 1960s.<ref name="ponting"/> Increases in national insurance benefits in 1965, 1967, 1968 and 1969 ensured that those dependent on state benefits saw their [[disposable income]]s rise faster than manual wage earners, while income differentials between lower-income and higher-income workers were marginally narrowed. Greater progressivity was introduced in the tax system, with greater emphasis on direct (income-based) as opposed to indirect (typically expenditure-based) taxation as a means of raising revenue, with the amount raised by the former increasing twice as much as that of the latter.<ref name="whiting">''The Labour Party and Taxation: Party Identity and Political Purpose in Twentieth-Century Britain'' by Richard Whiting.</ref> Also, despite an increase in unemployment, the poor improved their share of the national income while that of the rich was slightly reduced.<ref name="labour1945">''The Labour Party since 1945'' by Eric Shaw.</ref> Despite various cutbacks after 1966, expenditure on services such as education and health was still much higher as a proportion of national wealth than in 1964. In addition, by raising taxes to pay their reforms, the government paid careful attention to the principle of redistribution, with disposable incomes rising for the lowest paid while falling amongst the wealthiest during its time in office.<ref>''The Labour Party Since 1945'' by Kevin Jeffreys.</ref>

Between 1964 and 1968, benefits in kind were significantly progressive, in that over the period those in the lower half of the income scale benefited more than those in the upper half. On average those receiving state benefits benefited more in terms of increases in real disposable income than the average manual worker or salaried employee between 1964 and 1969.<ref name="beckerman"/> From 1964 to 1969, low-wage earners did substantially better than other sections of the population. In 1969, a married couple with two children were 11.5% per cent richer in real terms, while for a couple with three children, the corresponding increase was 14.5%, and for a family with four children, 16.5%.<ref name="api.parliament.uk">[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1970/may/27/clause-14 Clause 14, ALTERATIONS OF PERSONAL RELIEFS (Hansard, 27 May 1970)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308075856/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1970/may/27/clause-14 |date=8 March 2017 }}  api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 13 February 2012.</ref> From 1965 to 1968, the income of single pensioner households as a percentage of other one adult households rose from 48.9% to 52.5%. For two pensioner households, the equivalent increase was from 46.8% to 48.2%.<ref name="inequality"/> In addition, mainly as a result of big increases in cash benefits, unemployed persons and large families gained more in terms of real disposable income than the rest of the population during Wilson's time in office.<ref name="socialists1"/>

As noted by Paul Whiteley, pensions, sickness, unemployment, and supplementary benefits went up more in real terms under the First Wilson Government than under the preceding Conservative administration:

"To compare the Conservative period of office with the Labour period, we can use the changes in benefits per year as a rough estimate of comparative performance. For the Conservatives and Labour respectively increases in supplementary benefits per year were 3.5 and 5.2 percentage points, for sickness and unemployment benefits 5.8 and 30.6 percentage points, for pensions 3.8 and 4.6, and for family allowances −1.2 and −2.6. Thus the poor, the retired, the sick and the unemployed did better in real terms under Labour than they did under Conservatives, and families did worse."<ref name="auto1"/>

Between 1964 and 1968, cash benefits rose as a percentage of income for all households but more so for poorer than for wealthier households. As noted by the economist Michael Stewart,

"it seems indisputable that the high priority the Labour Government gave to expenditure on education and the health service had a favourable effect on income distribution."<ref name="beckerman"/>

For a family with two children in the income range £676 to £816 per annum, cash benefits rose from 4% of income in 1964 to 22% in 1968, compared with a change from 1% to 2% for a similar family in the income range £2,122 to £2,566 over the same period. For benefits in kind the changes over the same period for similar families were from 21% to 29% for lower-income families and from 9% to 10% for higher-income families. When taking into account all benefits, taxes and Government expenditures on social services, the first Wilson government succeeded in bringing about a reduction in income inequality. As noted by the historian [[Kenneth O. Morgan]],

"In the long term, therefore, fortified by increases in supplementary and other benefits under the Crossman regime in 1968–70, the welfare state had made some impact, almost by inadvertence, on social inequality and the maldistribution of real income".<ref>''Labour in Power, 1945–1951'' by Kenneth O. Morgan.</ref>

Public expenditure as a percentage of GDP rose significantly under the 1964–1970 Labour government, from 34% in 1964–65 to nearly 38% of GDP by 1969–70, whilst expenditure on social services rose from 16% of national income in 1964 to 23% by 1970.<ref name="ponting"/> These measures had a major impact on the living standards of low-income Britons, with disposable incomes rising faster for low-income groups than for high-income groups during the 1960s. When measuring disposable income after taxation but including benefits, the total disposable income of those on the highest incomes fell by 33%, whilst the total disposable income of those on the lowest incomes rose by 104%.<ref name="ponting"/> As noted by one historian, "the net effect of Labour's financial policies was indeed to make the rich poorer and the poor richer".<ref>''To Build A New Jerusalem: The British Labour Movement from the 1880s to the 1990s'' by A. J. Davies.</ref>